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Astronomers found strong evidence that a gassy Jupiter-size world is orbiting one of three stars in the stellar system closest to our own.
By Katrina Miller
Alpha Centauri has gripped the imaginations of sci-fi aficionados for decades. Only four light-years from Earth, the three-star system inspires fictional alien worlds and journeys through interstellar space.
Its proximity also makes it alluring for astronomers, including a team that, on Thursday, provided the strongest evidence yet that a planet circles one of Alpha Centauri’s sunlike stars. The world is at the very edge of the region around the star where liquid water can exist, known as the habitable zone.
